Page 6 of In Too Deep
Maybe she’d been a fool to come.Maybe she’d been a fool to take this job, period.
She wanted to scream, to claw her way out through the solid rock.But Noah’s steady breathing kept her grounded.
Breathe in…two, three, four.Hold…two, three, four.Breathe out…two, three, four.Hold…two, three, four.
Again.
Finally, her mind began to clear.She just needed to get out of her head.“I’d planned on doing research after med school.”
“But you are so good with patients.”He shifted positions, then unhooked the water bottle from his belt and passed it to her.
“Anxiety and doctors aren’t a good mix.”She unscrewed the top and took a long swig, then passed it back.“And I am good in the lab, so I was approached in my residency to join a research project.New ways to treat autoimmune disorders—rheumatoid arthritis, lupus.Everything was set, then funding dried up.”
His face was barely visible in the light from the small LED lantern he’d set between them.But his eyes were locked on her.
“That must have been disappointing.”
“Understatement of the century.”She tried for a smile and failed.“But then I got a job at the ER in Denver for a while.That wasn’t a good fit.Then I was offered a job at the South Rim—’Work for the government for four years and we’ll pay off your loans’ deal.After two years, they moved me here to establish the clinic at the North Rim.”
That meant her four years were up at the start of August.
When she’d taken the job, she’d been counting down the years.Not so much lately.
Her gaze flicked to Noah again and took in the way dust had settled in his blond hair.
“When the door opened to do this, I thought it was God’s way of showing me He had other plans for me besides research.”
“I think He does.”
“Joke’s on Him.I’m terrible at it.”Meg’s fingers brushed the girl’s wrist and found the weak pulse.“I also thought He’d heal me of this anxiety.But…” Her voice sounded thin and echoed off the limestone.Her breathing began to pick up speed again.
Noah shifted closer.His knee brushed hers.
Even the smallest touch kept her here.Now.
No one else had ever pulled her back from the edge like this man.
“When I was a kid, maybe ten”—Noah’s voice dropped low as he reached for her hand—“I got it in my head to explore this little cave near my grandpa’s cabin.I’d just watchedIndiana Jonesand was convinced there was treasure inside.”His story wound through the darkness.
“Did you have a hat?”She ran her thumb over his knuckles.
He seemed to stop breathing for a second.
“I bet you were cute.”
He cleared his throat but didn’t pull his hand away.“I did have a hat.And a whip—well, a rope.”A low chuckle rumbled through his chest.“I’ll show you a photo sometime and you can decide if I was cute.”
“Please tell me this doesn’t end with you getting lost in the cave alone.”Her hand tightened around his.
“Don’t jump ahead.”He laced her fingers with his, then began toying with her fingers with his free hand.“And I wasn’t alone.I knew better than to go into a cave alone, so I let my brother Ezra come.He was five.”
“No!”
“Yup.I let him carry the flashlight—one of those cheap ones that flickered every time you shook it.We crawled in there, and after about ten feet, it opened up into a large cavern.Not too different from this one but with stalagmites and stalactites.I’d never seen anything like it, and I wanted to see more, so we followed one of the paths deeper into the cave.And as you guessed it?—”
“You got lost.”Her hand gripped his tighter.
“Then, to make matters worse, Ezra dropped the flashlight and it shut off.We couldn’t find it again to try to shake it back to life.So we started to panic.Like really panic.Ezra was crying.I was crying.Then he stopped and said, ‘Can’t Jesus be our light?’I told him it didn’t actually work that way.And he said it did.We argued until he started to really cry.Like wail.
